Analysis of fishing effort in the proposed protected areas in Argentina

This analysis uses Global Fishign Watch data to examine the amount of fishing effort that occurs within the areas being considered for protection in Southern Argentina (Fig 1). This area is located withing the EEZ west of 65º and extends from 12-200 nm from shore (Figure 1)

Figure 1. Areas being considered for protection

All effort in Argentina EEZ

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Between 2014-2016, we observed a total of 784 vessels fishing within Argentina’s EEZ. Of these, 298 are Argentinian flagged vessels, which accounted for 93% of all fishing effort measured in Kilowatt hours (Table 1). The foreign vessels representing the rest of the fishing effort are predominantly from Chile, Uruguay, China, South Korea and Taiwan (Figure 1). The largest Argentinian fleet excerting most of the fishing effort are trawlers, followed by longliners and squid jiggers (Table 3). In terms of the foreign fleets, the most predominant ones are Uruguyan trawlers and Chinese squid jiggers (Table 3).

Year	Total vessels	Argentinian vessels	Total fishing days	Argentinian fishing days	Fishing energy (million KWh)	Argentina fishing energy (million KWh)
2014	516	232	38512	26100	1007	693
2015	599	249	43409	28139	1083	720
2016	622	261	40892	30019	1011	732

Gear type	Vessels	Fishing days	Fishing energy (million KWh)
trawlers	208	24270	618.49
drifting_longlines	21	2737	52.55
squid_jigger	14	1478	32.13
fixed_gear	7	923	14.65
other_fishing	2	280	8.90
purse_seines	3	161	4.21

Flag Country	Gear type	Vessels	Fishing days	Fishing energy (million KWh)
Falkland Islands	trawlers	15	2335	126.78
Spain	trawlers	21	1954	48.55
Uruguay	trawlers	44	2522	33.68
Taiwan	squid_jigger	31	494	12.13
China	squid_jigger	117	1478	11.76
South Korea	trawlers	8	169	9.59
Taiwan	drifting_longlines	14	282	8.77
United Kingdom	trawlers	1	148	7.19
Falkland Islands	drifting_longlines	1	215	5.71
Taiwan	purse_seines	6	117	3.19

Fishing effort in Argentina’s EEZ is concentrated in the central offshore region between 40 and 50º S (Figure 2). Additionally, relatively little fishing activity is observable south of 55º South. Regarding foreign fleets, Uruguay fishes predominalty in the northern region of the EEZ within the Argentine-Uruguayan Common Fishing Zone (ZCPAU), Chile’s fleet operates in the South West boundary of the EEZ and in the edge on the EEZ in the central region. China’s activity is less concentrated but occurs generally in the central and northern portion of the EEZ (Figure 3)

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128 tiles needed, this may take a while (try a smaller zoom).
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Fishing effort by Argentina’s trawlers fleet is ubiquitious throughout the EEZ with little effort observed south of 55ºS. Drifting longliners present a similarly spread distribution but are slighlyt more concentrated in the central region of the EEZ. Effort by the purse seine fleet is limited to a small region in the center of the EEZ and the squid jigging fleet operates predomintnaly north of 47ºS (Figure 4). With the exception of the Uruguayan trawlers, fishing effort by foreign fleets shows a more disperse distribution with some hotspots located in the central East and South West edges of the EEZ. (Figure 5.)

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Effort within the considered Drake MPA

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Within the considered Drake Marine Protected Area, we are able to observe 12 vessels fishing between 2014-2016. Of these, 5 Argentinian vessels (4 trawlers and 1 longliner) account for 99.0112056 of all observed effort (Table 4). Two Chilean vessels and one Korean vessel account for less than 1% of the effort and collectively spent only 7 fishing days in 2016 (Table 4).

Year	Total vessels	Argentinian vessels	Total fishing days	Argentinian fishing days	Fishing energy (million KWh)	Argentina fishing energy (million KWh)
2014	9	5	91	80	1.52	1.49
2015	7	5	230	226	4.02	4.01
2016	8	5	153	146	1.93	1.90

Flag state	Gear type	Vessels	Fishing days	Fishing energy (thousand KWh)
Argentina	trawlers	4	115	1553.63
Argentina	drifting_longlines	1	31	348.71
Chile	trawlers	1	2	12.22
South Korea	drifting_longlines	1	3	8.00
Chile	drifting_longlines	1	2	5.99

These results suggest that a very small fraction of Argentina’s fleet operates in the area considered for protection. Specifically, only 1.9138756 % of all Argentinian trawlers and 4.7619048 % of longliners fish in the region. The effort by these vessels represents only 0.2511952 % and 0.6635399 % of all effort by Argentian trawlers and longliners, respectively.

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Year	Gear type	All vessels in EEZ	Vessels in Drake	% of vessels	All fishing energy in EEZ	Fishing energy in Drake	% fishing energy
2014	drifting_longlines	12	1	8.33	31.06	0.31	1.00
2014	trawlers	195	5	2.56	626.28	1.18	0.19
2015	drifting_longlines	14	1	7.14	40.56	1.11	2.74
2015	trawlers	204	4	1.96	628.05	2.90	0.46
2016	drifting_longlines	21	1	4.76	52.55	0.35	0.67
2016	trawlers	209	4	1.91	618.50	1.55	0.25

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Overlap effor map with all MPAs

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